Monday 25 May 2009

The ROCKY road to Dublin... see what I did there?

This has been loooooong overdue. The years of bottling, the era spent in the shadow of Munster, the abuse from the media, hasn't been easy to play for Leinster. Great things are expected, especially when your closest rivals become perennial qualifiers to the knock-out stages

That being said this win is a perfect reward for the team's patience and perseverance over the years. Grounding out the quarter-final win in London showed a self-belief and grit up front, especially in the tight five that Leinster have lacked in the past. Healy and Wright provided a solid base at scrum time along with Mal and Culen in the second row.

They were nicely complimented by the rampaging Elsom at 6, I guarantee every Leinster fan is praying for a return of that ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! chant next year. Along with O'Driscoll the big Aussie (literally) carried Leinster into contact, through the other side and several yards onwards.

Smashing Munster at Croker felt like sweet sweet revenge for the thumping dealt out to Leinster at the same stage at Lansdowne a few years ago. If anything it was an even more emphatic whalloping than the one Munster delivered, it showed just how far Cheika has brought this team on.

The final is something of a drunken blur... but from what I remember we went pretty well

Whether or not Elsom decides to stay will have massive implications for Leinster's title defence next year. Losing Wright, Contepomi and Whitaker too, one could be forgiven for thinking Leinster somewhat screwed but as we found this year there are plenty of talent coming up through ze academy; Healy, Sexton, Toner, McFadden, O'Brien, Fitzgerald. With new signings Redden, Ross etc Leinster already look a good bet for next year

Subscribe In A Reader

The Macaque

I, ze writer of this semi-comprehensible babble am James S. McDermott (BA). A recent graduate of the UCDD in Dublin, Ireland I will be enrolling in an MA in Ancient History and Classics at the University of Bristol next October. I will try to update this as much as possible but I'm not promising anything